Rare Mammal Now Extinct

know1

Collin wrote:

Or nothing, except for maybe cockroaches and other nasty bugs.

Possibly.

But look at it this way - if all that existed right now were cockroaches, nasty bugs and human, would we be trying to keep them from going extinct? I actually think we would because it's the known and the comfortable to us, but I wonder if keeping weaker species surviving is actually doing harm in the long, long, long run.

tybird

Jeanwah wrote:

Well, for one thing, we (as in humans) belong to the Earth. Not the other way around. So if we never came into being that would have been fine, it's nature's way of working. The dinosaurs' extinction was from an asteroid. In other words, (cosmic) nature caused it. As Tybird mentioned, the #1 reason that animals go extinct now is from loss of habitat (I apparently was wrong for my reasoning, but it is still caused by humans nonetheless, which is what I'm going after). So we are directly at fault for why these dolphins went extinct. It's not the whole evolution ideal that you're thinking. If we humans listened more to the land and not to our selfish nature, we'd be taking better care of it.

You are correct in stating that the majority of extinctions can list human activity as the main causal factor. If we got nit picky about the whole business, we could describe "loss of habitat" as an indirect result of human activity and "hunting/poaching" as a direct result of human activity. It could also be argued that both are direct results of human activity.

It is sad that the Chinese prior to Mao were a nation that probably did "listen to the land" better any Western civilization.

Jeanwah

know1 wrote:

But look at it this way - if all that existed right now were cockroaches, nasty bugs and human, would we be trying to keep them from going extinct? I actually think we would because it's the known and the comfortable to us, but I wonder if keeping weaker species surviving is actually doing harm in the long, long, long run.

I know you mean this in jest, but it's impossible for humans to flourish if the only other species aliver were cockroaches and other nasty bugs. Our civilization would be dead.

Jeanwah

tybird wrote:

It is sad that the Chinese prior to Mao were a nation that probably did "listen to the land" better any Western civilization.

Native Americans and Eskimos still listen to the land, what's left of them, sadly.

Collin

know1 wrote:

Possibly.

But look at it this way - if all that existed right now were cockroaches, nasty bugs and human, would we be trying to keep them from going extinct? I actually think we would because it's the known and the comfortable to us, but I wonder if keeping weaker species surviving is actually doing harm in the long, long, long run.

The fact is we can make all species (except maybe the insects) 'weak species.'

know1

Collin wrote:

The fact is we can make all species (except maybe the insects) 'weak species.'

Maybe so. Of course, eliminating all of them would certainly make us a weak species as well.

Also, I believe that at least some of the species who go extinct do so not as a direct result of man.

stuckinline

know1 wrote:

Maybe so. Of course, eliminating all of them would certainly make us a weak species as well.

Also, I believe that at least some of the species who go extinct do so not as a direct result of man.

but, these dolphins are now extinct BECAUSE of man....


"For the baiji, the culprit was a degraded habitat - busy ship traffic, which confounds the sonar the dolphin uses to find food, and overfishing and pollution in the Yangtze waters of eastern China, the expedition said."

what happens to these animals will eventually happen to man

know1

gluten919 wrote:

but, these dolphins are now extinct BECAUSE of man....


"For the baiji, the culprit was a degraded habitat - busy ship traffic, which confounds the sonar the dolphin uses to find food, and overfishing and pollution in the Yangtze waters of eastern China, the expedition said."

what happens to these animals will eventually happen to man

True (although their inability to adapt did play a part)

Collin

know1 wrote:

True (although their inability to adapt did play a part)

Few animals can adapt that rapidly.

know1

Collin wrote:

Few animals can adapt that rapidly.

No argument here.

tybird

Collin wrote:

Few animals can adapt that rapidly.

I suspect the major changes to the habitat happened within only a couple of dolphin generations.....evolution is a very slow mechanism.

tybird

Jeanwah wrote:

Native Americans and Eskimos still listen to the land, what's left of them, sadly.

Very true, very, very true......I am aghast that I did not even think of them....especially since a large portion of their native diet is from aquatic mammals. Interesting fact....prior to the mass production of PCBs and extensive use of mercury by the modern world, the diet of the Eskimos was/is the healthy diet on the planet.

gue_barium

tybird wrote:

There's always hope that this little jewel is still alive.........the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was declared extinct in the 1940's........yet there is a belief that at least two populations may still exist in Arkansas and Florida. There is also rumors of the Imperial Woodpecker still living in the Mexican highlands.

I had never heard this particular species referred to as the "white dolphin." The Yangzte Dolphin, a similar species to the Amazon Dolphin.

It is true about the re-discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker. It happened in Arkansas in 2004, 66 years after the last confirmed sighting.

seagoat2

I'm really glad that this thread sparked some conversation.....

As Gandhi once said:

"The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not everyman's greed"..........

CorporateWhore

I got news for you all.

I ate the last white dolphin. If you want to bring it out of extinction, better search for it in my toilet bowl.

How's that for a joke? Funny? No?

As long as we're all joking...

tybird

gue_barium wrote:

It is true about the re-discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker. It happened in Arkansas in 2004, 66 years after the last confirmed sighting.

A team from a certain university here in Alabama have detected/seen/witnessed what could several of the birds in the panhandle of Florida.

seagoat2

tybird wrote:

A team from a certain university here in Alabama have detected/seen/witnessed what could several of the birds in the panhandle of Florida.

I've been reading about this too, tybird....Let's hope! Glad to see that you are informed....are you secretly on the team??? Hee, hee....

tybird

seagoat2 wrote:

I've been reading about this too, tybird....Let's hope! Glad to see that you are informed....are you secretly on the team??? Hee, hee....

No.....alas, I am not. I do believe that I have met the Professor in charge of the Florida efforts. Who knows....I will be taking a field ornithology course in January...maybe one day I will get to participate in the search efforts. I have heard Bobby Harrison, one of the gentlemen to see the bird in Arkansas, speak at a function here in Birmingham.

There has been talk of possible search efforts here in Alabama (in the Tensaw Delta region) for both the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Bachman's Warbler. They share some habitat characteristics and the "extinct" tag.

seagoat2

tybird wrote:

No.....alas, I am not. I do believe that I have met the Professor in charge of the Florida efforts. Who knows....I will be taking a field ornithology course in January...maybe one day I will get to participate in the search efforts. I have heard Bobby Harrison, one of the gentlemen to see the bird in Arkansas, speak at a function here in Birmingham.

There has been talk of possible search efforts here in Alabama (in the Tensaw Delta region) for both the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Bachman's Warbler. They share some habitat characteristics and the "extinct" tag.

Wow! Very cool! Much success to you with your new class. Hopefully they'll document some sightings.

tybird

seagoat2 wrote:

Hopefully they'll document some sightings.

Yes, that would be great.